WIKIPEDIA, KEN HAMMOND (USDA)In 2008, Judy van de Water from the University of California, Davis, discovered a group of autoantibodies—those that trigger immune responses against the body’s own molecules—that are especially common in mothers of children with autism. Now, her team has identified what these antibodies bind to: six proteins involved in varied aspects of brain development. By crossing the placenta and affecting these proteins in a fetus’s brain, the maternal antibodies could increase the risk of developmental problems in some cases of autism, according to the new research, published today (July 9) in Translational Psychiatry.
“I cannot laud these authors enough,” said Andrew Zimmerman, a neurologist from the Kennedy Krieger Institute, who has also been studying maternal antibodies but was not involved in this study. “Given that, at present, only between 15 and 20 percent of children with autism have known causes—mainly genetic and infectious mechanisms—this will be a major advance.”
Van de Water’s team, led by graduate student Dan Braunschweig, is now using their discovery to develop a test that predicts a child’s risk of developing autism spectrum disorders based on the mother’s antibodies. “It would allow mothers to plan,” said van de Water, by enrolling their children in educational programs that promote social skills from an early age.
The antibody hypothesis would only apply to a quarter of ...
